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Monday, August 21, 2006

So I've been thinking on and off about ritual, the purpose of ritual, that sort of thing. One of the essentials of ritual work, in my mind, has been recognising universal human transition points -- those things that are big and scary to do on one's own, but with ritual one has other people to support the transition, and also through the shared ritual the thing is universalised and thus made a part of cyclical time (even if the people in the ritual only do it once themselves).

I think pretty much all religions have something for birth and death. I know Catholicism has seven big sacraments (though I could only name, like, four) in this mode. Various religions have other things that they consider important to mark ritually -- I've seen Wiccans talk about things like croning ceremonies to mark a life-stage transition, for example.

What life moments does your religion ritualise?

What sorts of things do you want this sort of ritual support for, but find lacking in your religion?

What sorts of things does your religion not recognise with ritual that other people might find surprising? (I, for example, don't have a religious marriage ceremony or the beliefs to support one.)